90 miles and decades removed from the United States, the island of Cuba persists as a stubbornly living relic of the Cold War, excommunicated from the Western world just enough to make everything from its music to policy to its health care system a mystery. It was to explore this latter element that CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta found himself Havana last week, from where he told Mediaite his first impressions and expectations on the island, and worked on an upcoming documentary on swimmer Diana Nyad‘s attempt to traverse the stretch of water from Havana to Florida.

The Department of Health and Human Services really established that America’s private insurance companies must allow access to preventive health care needs to women. Free H.I.V. screenings, free counseling, even free breast pumps are covered under the plan which could start as soon as next August. Stephen Colbert is predictably outraged over this, declaring last [...]

It didn’t take long for Rep. Allen West‘s fundraising email calling DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz a series of harsh insults– “vile, despicable, unprofessional… not a lady… coward”– to set fire to the blogosphere and, predictably, it has not taken Rep. West too long to issue an apology. As accusations of sexism mounted against him, the Congressman told reporters today that he “just apologized” for the email personally.

Well, this story is like a wacky screwball comedy! Only less so because it’s actually really depressing. North Carolina man James Verone considers himself “a logical person” so, when the 59 year old developed some troubling medical problems including a growth in his chest and had no medical insurance, he decided on the best way to get help; he robbed a bank. Not wanting to cause any more than the requisite amount of trouble though, he only stole $1.

Call it a preemptive strike, if you will. Yesterday, in anticipation of today’s presidential announcement by Mitt Romney, Western Representation PAC announced it would be launching StopRomney.org, a movement for conservatives opposed to the former Massachusetts governor’s 2012 candidacy. The group’s official description: Conservatives in America deserve to feel passionately about their Presidential nominee, and [...]

As far as Medicare has been able to wheedle itself into the public consciousness as a 2012 campaign issue, much of the media has put Republicans on the defensive for attempting to slash funding that would go to health care. It appears the Democrats’ time, at least at the Washington Post, as arrived, as the paper ran a scathing editorial harping on Democrats for “effectively scaring seniors as a political tactic” and Republicans for playing along.

President Obama did a town hall at Facebook headquarters today and got a rousing response. The audience was receptive and he (and moderator Mark Zuckerberg) seemed to be enjoying themselves. However, just like in a job interview (which this kind of was, if you think about it) Obama was eventually asked about his faults. We’ve got his winding response. And, no, he didn’t say that he “sometimes tries too hard.”

Last Friday, Ed Schultz took his show on the road to visit Bill Maher‘s Real Time, and the volume on set as he faced off against former RNC chairman Michael Steele got, of course, predictably loud. Today on his program, Schultz rebutted the blogosphere (including your humble Mediaite) for accurately chronicling said volume, not denying it, but asking his audience, “What do you want me to do?”

On Laura Ingraham‘s radio show today, former Senator Evan Banh discussed his vote for President Barack Obama’s plans for health care reform.

Although he voted for the bill – or, as he phrased it, he voted to “try and accomplish the things that were good in the bill, and then hope to change those things that were either absent or needed to be corrected in the bill” – he admits he has some qualms with it, particularly with the notion that it will keep health care costs down.

House Speaker John Boehner opened debate last night over the House budget proposal, and also created a font of compelling video clips for us to enjoy today. We’ve already shared Rep. Speier’s sharing of her own experience with an abortion, and now we have a much lighter and perhaps more cynical example of congressional discourse: Rep. Anthony Weiner asking his GOP congressional counterparts who oppose “government controlled health care” to give up their own health care coverage that is provided by the federal government. Gotcha?

Rachel Maddow‘s patience with Fox News appears to have finally fully waned. Having spent a good amount of time on her program calmly arguing her side of the story in an attempt to debunk the loudest voices of her rival network, Maddow has now begun an all-out counter-campaign of concern for the “stupidifying effect” of having Fox News broadcast and watched on American airwaves, beginning with the “death panels” and arriving at the “leftist caliphate.”

We are in an “extremely serious constitutional crisis” according to Rush Limbaugh. With yesterday’s ruling by a federal court in Florida that the entire Health Care law should be thrown out, the White House has to figure out its next move. If President Obama doesn’t uphold the ruling, it will be another move by, what Limbaugh calls “an increasingly lawless president.”

Optimists of the country take note! In the wake of the tragedy in Arizona, could it be that our nation’s leaders and media figures may actually try to turn down the hate. First people from both parties united to appreciate President Obama’s memorial speech. Then a plan was set in place to end the partisan seating arrangements that have, for years, plagued State of the Union Addresses like the awkward gender split at middle school dance.

Last Week, PolitiFact designated the term “government takeover of health care” as its “lie of the year”.  While this title certainly holds some surface merit (the final Congressional product does not denotatively constitute a takeover), the way in which PolitiFact dismisses the Republican attack line as a total fabrication is troubling.  Furthermore, PolitiFact brushes off [...]

“I’m thinking starting it with ‘Pooh’ is not a good idea,” said Megyn Kelly, attempting to pronounce PPACA, the acronym for the Health Care Law’s new name, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Both she and Alan Colmes were pretty unimpressed. The two had an interesting conversation about the powers of branding and the necessity for a “sexy” moniker.

There are a lot of lies told each calendar year, and more so during election years. So as 2010 comes to an end, PolitiFact looked back and determined which one they thought should be their Lie of the Year. And the winner (or loser?) is: “A government takeover of health care,” a phrase they say was instrumental in stopping “President Barack Obama‘s ambitious plan to overhaul America’s health insurance system.”

In 2008, an ailing Senator Ted Kennedy gave a speech at the Democratic National Convention that focused, in part, on the political issue closest to his heart: health care. “This is the cause of my life,” he said, adding that he hoped one day soon, “will break the old gridlock and guarantee that every American—north, south, east, west, young, old—will have decent, quality health care as a fundamental right and not a privilege.”

But according to former President Jimmy Carter, Kennedy himself is to blame for Americans’ lack of coverage.

Earlier this afternoon, Megyn Kelly was conducting an interview with “Tea Party Doctor” Dr. Adam Dorin from the National Doctors Tea Party about his attacks on the American Medical Association over their endorsement of the Health Care Law. It was a fairly routine segment as Kelly asked him about his views and practice until, suddenly, things took a hard left turn as Kelly brought up a connection Dorin and his organization have to a website that believes Obama got elected through hypnosis. Once again, Kelly proved here that she’s a whole lot more than just another attractive face in an anchor’s chair.

Jerry Springer‘s made a career out of making people around him look off balance and that’s just where FOX News’s Sean Hannity found himself when he brought the twenty-year TV veteran to Hannity. Though Springer was there to plug his new dating show on the Game Show Network, Hannity went straight for the ambush and targetted Springer’s continued support for President Obama. When Springer emerged from that unscathed, Hannity switched the subject to health care, to which Springer was weirdly prepared — having said he regularly reads articles on the subject.

To announce the arrival of the new HealthCare.gov, President Barack Obama took to the internet to release today an instructional video on how to use the website for information on the new health care bill and personalized insurance options. Since he has “pretty good health insurance” at the moment, he went through the steps of finding insurance as if he were in the financial position he was as a newlywed.

During yesterday’s White House press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and CNS reporter Frank Lucas had a testy exchange over comments by new recess appointment, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services head Donald Berwick– an exchange with Glenn Beck saw as exemplary of the type of “you attack, you marginalize, you mock” strategy Gibbs, in his eyes, has perfected. Beck took Gibbs to task for dodging the question, and had a few words for some of us in the media, too.

As coverage of the current oil spill crisis continues to dominate the media, the Democratic National Committee is gearing up to refocus national attention back on health care. Yesterday, the DNC released a new ad entitled “We Can’t Afford To Go Back,” which is set to air on national cable television next week.

Remember that historic signing of the new health reform bill? You know what I’m talking about – the day that either a) launched a brand new era of more accessible and improved heath care for everyone or b) sealed our fate as a failing country. Still don’t recall? Huh. Oh, I know, it was also the day that Vice President Joe Biden dropped the f-bomb near an open mic. Right! Well he discussed that today while visiting the set of The View.

President Barack Obama signed a memorandum this evening to expand visitation rights for relatives of those ailing, a move that the LGBT community is praising for explicitly referring to the rights of gays and lesbians to visit and make decisions for sick partners. “Hospitals,” it reads, “may not deny visitation privileges on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.”

We wrote earlier about Dr. Jack Cassell, the urologist from Florida who posted a sign in the window of his practice which read “If you voted for Obama, seek urological care elsewhere.” A few hours ago, Fox News had a local radio host on to plead the good doctor’s case but, Neil Cavuto got the interview from the doctor himself.